Extended Argument

Here is a sample of my work from the extended argument paper;

There is one major similarity between Muhammad Ali, Michael J. Fox, and the late Pope John Paul II and that is that all three celebrities have or had Parkinsonís disease. Parkinsonís disease is ďa chronic progressive nervous disease chiefly of later life that is linked to decreased dopamine production in the substantia nigra (a part of the brain that controls balance and movement) and is marked by tremor and weakness of resting muscles and by a shuffling gait.Ē (ďParkinsonís DiseaseĒ 1). Parkinsonís is essentially a disease that slowly attacks the nervous system and causes a multitude of symptoms, which may include:
Tremors, rigidity, stiffness or inflexibility of the muscles,
bradykinesia (the slowing of voluntary movement), changes
in walking, speech changes, loss of facial expression,
micrographia (small, cramped hand writing), drooling, pain,
depression, dementia or confusion, sleep disturbances, constipation, difficulty swallowing, skin problems, fear or anxiety, memory
difficulties and slowed thinking, sexual dysfunction, urinary
problems, fatigue and aching, and loss of energy (Forstrom 2).
Although the cause of Parkinsonís is unknown, many studies suggest that there may be one main cause for the contraction of the disease, that is may be linked to heredity, that the sickness is passed down from generation to generation through genes. Even though there is no cure at the moment for Parkinsonís disease, a variety of treatments are available to ease the symptoms that accompany the disease. The basic way that most doctors ease the pain of Parkinsonís is with the use of medication. Many doctors prescribe medications in spite of the fact that many times the medicine does more damage than good, that the patients often can not afford the medication, and that each patient must have their own drug recipe that can change as often as every month. Parkinsonís disease is an illness that Americans and the world are slowly starting to recognize as a potential problem. Since each treatment has to be individualized for the specific patient, many times it takes years before a successful combination of medication is found. Parkinsonís is a debilitating disease, but it is one that if researched could possible by cured. Until that time, alternative treatment methods such as brain surgery or the implantation of ďBrain PacemakersĒ.